Simone de Beauvoir
The existentialist who showed that 'woman' is made, not born — and that freedom is real only when it is shared.
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
Core ideas
- One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman
- My freedom is bound to the freedom of others
- Ethics requires ambiguity: no formulas, only situations
Historical context
Wrote The Second Sex (1949) from postwar Paris; it scandalized, sold, and began second-wave feminism's theoretical life.
Key works
The Second Sex · The Ethics of Ambiguity
Questions they speak to
Minds in conversation
- Friedrich NietzscheGermany / Basel / Turin
- Hannah ArendtGermany → United States
- Søren KierkegaardCopenhagen
Sources
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Simone de Beauvoir